The County Of Maniototo
was constituted in June, 1877, and has an area of 1239 square miles. There are 1306 ratepayers, and these own 1500 rateable properties, which had, in March, 1904, a total rateable value of £532,603. The annual rate is ¾d in the £ and the revenue is about £10,000 per annum. A large water-race and sludge channel has been constructed in the county by the Government,
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at a cost of £64,000. It is supplied from the Manuherikia, and by a number of creeks from the Hawkdun and Mount Ida mountains. The race is over seventy miles in length. and the water is all sold for gold-mining. The sludge channel is ten miles in length, and discharges into the Taieri river. A large reservoir on the Eweburn contains 600,000,000 gallons, or sufficient to supply the working for six weeks, day and night, at the season of the year when water is most required. The outlay on this reservoir was £15,000. At the establishment of the county system there was very little land occupied for agricultural purposes on the Maniototo Plains, but now large areas, formerly held as sheep runs, have been cut up and are occupied by small settlers. Since the passing of the new land laws the Maniototo county has derived considerable benefit from the allowance of one-third of all rentals from deferred payments, perpetual leases, and leases in perpetuity, and of one-fourth in the case of small grazing run leases. The revenue from this source amounts to over £2,000 a year, and is still on the increase. Members of the Council for 1901: Messrs J. R. Smith (chairman) and C. Inder, Mount Ida riding; P. Kinney, Hyde riding; W. M. Wilson, and E. F. Gerkens, St. Bathans riding; John Cogan, Serpentine riding; R. Logan, Kyeburn riding; E. F. Blakeley, Puketol riding; and R. Johnstone, Idaburn riding. Mr. R. H. Browne is engineer, and Mr. H. Wilson, county clerk.
Councillor Patrick Kinney
, J.P., has represented the Hyde riding on the Maniototo County Council since 1889, and has on two occasions been elected chairman. He is also a member of the Central Otago Hospital Board, chairman of the Hyde Domain Board, a member of the Cemetery Trust, and president of the Hyde Turf Club, and has been for three years a member of the Palmerston South Licensing Committee. Mr. Kinney was born in County Antrim, Ireland, in 1850, and came to Port Chalmers by the ship “Edward P. Bouverie,” in 1871. He went to the goldfields at Hyde, was subsequently engaged in sawmilling at Lake Wakatipu and was in Southland for about two years. Mr. Kinney bought a partnership in the “Star of Otago,” but, this venture proving unsuccessful, he started contracting in the Hyde district. There he purchased some land, gradually increased his holding, and is now proprietor of the Rockvale estate, which is referred to elsewhere in this volume. Mr. Kinney married a daughter of Mr. Michael Prendergast, of Hyde, and has, surviving, a family of four sons and three daughters.
Mr. Richard Henry Browne
, C.E., Engineer for the Maniototo County, was born in Norwich, England, in 1843. He was educated in Kent and served his apprenticeship to Mr. Alexander Gordon, M.I.C.E., London. In 1863 he arrived in Melbourne, and a few months later crossed the Tasman Sea to Otago, and entered the office of the city engineer in Dunedin, where he continued for about three years. Mr Browne was afterwards engaged on railway service, and in 1872 was appointed to the charge of the Mount Ida water-race, the largest work of its kind in the Colony. Whilst in that position he was appointed district engineer under the Roads and Bridges Construction Act by the Provincial Government of Otago, and held the position till the abolition of the Provinces; and at the initiation of the county system he was appointed engineer for the Maniototc County. He was superintendent engineer for the construction of the Eweburn reservoir. Mr. Browne passed his examination and became an authorised surveyor in 1873. He was married, in 1875, to the eldest daughter of the Rev. E. Williams, Anglican clergyman, now of York, West Australia, and has three sons and two daughters.
Mr. Hugh Wilson
, Clerk of the Maniototo County Council, was born in 1843, in Lanarkshire, Scotland. He was educated in Glasgow, and came to Port Chalmers in 1863, by the ship “Mataura.” On the discovery of gold on the West Coast Mr. Wilson went thither by the first steamer, but the vessel had to put back to Nelson. Soon afterwards he went to Melbourne, whence he returned to Scotland, but twelve months later came out again to Otago and settled in Dunedin, where he found employment at the office of the “Otago Daily Times.” After an experience on the “Bruce Herald,” at Milton, Mr. Wilson became manager of the Dunedin “Daily Mail,” which he managed till 1868, when he settled in Naseby, and, in company with Mr. Hertslet, became proprietor of the “Mount Ida Chronicle.” Mr. Wilson has held office as county clerk since the inception of the county system. He was married on the
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27th of December, 1871, to a daughter of the late Mr. Justice, of Balmullo, Fifeshire, Scotland, and has four sons and four daughters.
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